A common article of apparel favored by women athletes and active women is the ‘sports bra,’ a garment intended both to robustly support the breasts during vigorous activity and permit freedom of motion of the arms, shoulders, head, neck, and torso. Another apparel item sometimes worn by persons wishing to accelerate water weight loss through sweating during vigorous physical activity is the non-breathable garment commonly known as the ‘sauna suit’ or ‘sweat-suit.’ Although there seems to be a lag in the onset of sweating at the beginning of exercise, it has been well documented that sweating (evaporation) provides the major physiologic defense against overheating. Heat is continually being evaporated through the skin into the environment as water.
The sweating rate of any given individual is dependent upon the climatic conditions/environmental acclimation, the type of clothing worn, and the level of exercise intensity. (Sawka, et al., 1998.) Sawka, et al. conclude that persons wearing protective clothing often have sweating rates of 1 to 2 liters per hour while performing light intensity exercise. Protective clothing such as the nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) ensemble worn by military personnel, the protective equipment worn by football players, or the sauna suit features high insulation and low water vapor permeability, due to the thickness and the multilayered fabric design.
This layering effect traps insulative air layers around the body and impairs the transfer of heat to the environment. The limited evaporative heat loss allowed by the protective clothing, combined with an increased metabolic heat production and high ambient temperature, can increase the body's core temperature to dangerously high levels. These conditions define uncompensable heat stress wherein the evaporative cooling requirements (E.sub.req) greatly exceed the maximum evaporative potential (E.sub.max), which maintains thermal equilibrium.
It is not uncommon, therefore, for conditions that would normally be defined as compensable heat stress, to become uncompensable when protective clothing is worn (McLellan, et al., 1999). The heat strain associated with wearing NBC protective clothing has been studied for many different combinations of ambient temperature, vapor pressure, and metabolic rate (Carter and Cammermyer, 1985); Kraning and Gonzalez, 1991; McLellan, 1993; Montain, et at. 1994). U.S. Pat. No. 6,231,488 issued on May 15, 2001 to Dicker, et. al. entitled “Aerobic Exercise Garment”) discloses an aerobic resistance garment is particularly designed for warm weather or indoor or high temperature use by including elastic resistance bands and base fabric material wherein the base fabric material is breathable such as by being made from an open mesh or net material. If desired, at least a portion of the midriff may be bare.
Various garments have been suggested which include elastic elements to provide a resistance to an activity which would require swinging or bending of the arms or legs or the bending of various body parts. Examples of such garments are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,109,546, 5,176,600, 5,186,701, 5,201,074, 5,306,222 and 5,570,472. One deficiency of current sauna suit designs is that they are generally baggy, unfitted garments designed as a unisex or one size fits all item. No known sauna suits provides integrated support for the breasts, thereby requiring that a bra or sports bra be worn underneath the sauna suit to insure adequate support during physical activity. This is a further deficiency which requires the wearer to don undergarments first, then the sauna suit.
A further deficiency of current designs is that many undergarments are not designed to endure the high degree of saturation in sweat which occurs when worn with a sauna suit, and may therefore be damaged, or garment life significantly reduced. A further additional deficiency is that some individuals may choose to wear a sauna suit under ‘regular’ clothing, in order to continue the accelerated water weight loss process while engaged in activities requiring ‘normal’ clothes; and as most sauna suits are quite baggy and un-fitted, the ability to comfortably conceal them under ‘regular’ clothing is limited at best. One additional deficiency of current designs is the lack of an absorbent lining to absorb sweat, thereby preventing it from running down the user's body and possibly wetting or staining their clothing or footwear.
There are many known sports bras and sauna suits, but each suffers deficiencies when an attempt is made to utilize them together, particularly under clothing. There is no known garment which combines the functionality and benefits of a sports bra, a sauna suit, and a fitted garment which may be worn alone or under clothing. While the deficiencies mentioned above are well known, there has never been an attempt to remedy them with a single integrated solution.
Accordingly, those skilled in the art have recognized a significant need for aerobic garments to act as a fitted sauna suit, thereby permitting the garment to be worn under clothing. There is also a need for a fitted sauna suit which facilitates an aesthetically pleasing shape to and support for the wearer's breasts, buttocks, and torso, and/or thighs. Moreover, the art has recognized a need for such garments to have an absorbent material to absorb the sweat produced by the user to avoid introduction of sweat into the user's clothing or footwear. It is also desirable, if not mandatory, that such fitted sauna suits can tolerate the conditions of use including high moisture exposure and robust activity. The present invention fulfills such needs.